Factors influencing implementation of mandated policy change: Proposition 227 in seven northern California school districts

Bilingual Research Journal, Winter 2000 by Maxwell-Jolly, Julie

The seven K-12 districts in this sample are all within 75 miles of the state capital, and include rural, urban, and suburban school systems. Their student populations range from very small to moderately large as do their numbers of English learner students. In two of the districts English language learners comprise fewer than 10% of the student population. They make up approximately one-third of the student body in three districts, one-quarter in another, and slightly under one-fifth in another (see Table 1). Most of the English language learners in the seven districts are native Spanish speakers. In two of the districts Russian-speaking students make up a relatively large percentage of the English language learner population.

Researchers conducted observations and interviews in one district-- administrator-recommended school from each district. Recommendations were made principally on the basis of size of ELL population. The team postulated that schools with the largest numbers of English language learners were most affected by Proposition 227 and therefore most likely to produce insights about its implementation and effects. Researchers also sought to include districts that represented a variety of interpretations of Proposition 227 policy, and chose schools that typified each district's approach.

The primary goal of the team from UC Davis was to discover through interviews and observations how districts devised their 227 policy and how this influenced school policy and ultimately, classroom practice. To this end researchers interviewed the district level administrator most directly responsible for English language learner programs. At each school site, they interviewed the principal, bilingual coordinator or resource teacher if such a position existed, and three to five teachers who had significant numbers of ELL students in their classrooms. Researchers also interviewed instructional aides and non-bilingual resource teachers at two sites where these individuals spent considerable instructional time with the students. In all, the team interviewed over 50 individuals and observed in more than 25 classrooms.

District Level Response to Proposition 227

Ron Unz, the principal engineer of Proposition 227, has stated that the intention of the initiative was to virtually eliminate primary language approaches. However, the range of policy responses to the proposition, the interaction of other contemporaneously enacted policies (class size reduction and testing in particular), and local implementation of these policies have contributed to varied interpretations of Proposition 227. The convention of policy implementation research regarding the influence of local variability on the result of reform applies in these seven districts. The findings support McLaughlin's (1987) observation that the "actual consequences of the policy will depend finally on what happens as individuals throughout the policy system interpret and act on them" (p. 172).

These seven districts took four basic policy approaches to primary language programs after the passage of Proposition 227. Variation in the provision of access to the waiver option largely defined these differences. School districts made a decision about whether or not to offer parents the option of a waiver and if so how rigorously to promote or pursue this option. District policies in some cases encouraged and in others deterred parents from seeking a waiver. One response included strong support for continuing bilingual programs and active involvement in the parental waiver process. The other three ranged from no waiver option for a bilingual or other alternative program to a "hands-off" approach to school policy in regard to the initiative (see Table 2).